Category Archives: Second Amendment

The Second Amendment, or Amendment II, of the United States Constitution, is the amendment and the section of the Bill of Rights that says that people have the right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted into the United States Constitution on December 15, 1791, along with the other amendments in the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights were introduced into the United States Constitution by James Madison.

There are two important versions of the text found in the Second Amendment, but the only differences are due to punctuation and capitalization. The text of the Second Amendment which is found in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the following:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Second Amendment is only a sentence long. However, there are some very important phrases that need to be carefully looked at. Here are some explanations for key phrases in the Second Amendment.

Militia: During early American history, all males who were between the ages of sixteen to sixty were required to be a part of the local militia in their towns and communities. Almost everyone during this time used and owned guns. The few men who did not use or own a gun were required by law to pay a small fee instead of participating in the military services of their communities. These militias defended the communities against Indian raids and revolved, acted as a police force when it was needed and was also available to be called upon to defense either the State or of the United States of America if it was needed.

Bear arms: When the Second Amendment was written, arms meant weapons. The word arms did not necessarily only mean guns, but it definitely included guns. The Second Amendment did not specifically explain what categories or types of arms nor did it list what weapons were considered arms. When you bear arms, this means you physically carry weapons. You may have arms in your home as well as on your person.

Shall not be infringed: The Second Amendment does not grant any right to bear arms. Furthermore, the rest of the Bill of Rights does not describe any right to do so. These rights are thought of as natural rights or God-given rights. In the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment is just a reminder to the government that they should not try to stop people from having this right.

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2ND AMENDMENT (Second Amendment)-Text, Gun Rights to Bear ...

Twenty-second Amendment, amendment (1951) to the Constitution of the United States effectively limiting to two the number of terms a president of the United States may serve. It was one of 273 recommendations to the U.S. Congress by the Hoover Commission, created by Pres. Harry S. Truman, to reorganize and reform the federal government. It was formally proposed by the U.S. Congress on March 24, 1947, and was ratified on Feb. 27, 1951.

The Constitution did not stipulate any limit on presidential termsindeed, as Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 69: That magistrate is to be elected for four years; and is to be re-eligible as often as the people of the United States shall think him worthy of their confidence. (Hamilton also argued, in Federalist 71, in favour of a life term for the president of the United States.) George Washington, the countrys first president, opted to retire after two terms, setting a de facto informal law that was respected by the countrys first 31 presidents that there should be rotation in office after two terms for the office of the presidency.

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There is no clear indication that the decision to pursue the amendment was triggered by any single event or abuse of power. Indeed, throughout U.S. history, few presidents ever expressed the desire to serve more than the traditional two terms. Ulysses S. Grant sought a third term in 1880, but he was denied his partys nomination. Theodore Roosevelt sought a third term in 1912 but lost (it would have been his second elected term).

In the 1930s, however, the national and global context brought forth an interruption to this two-term precedent.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt had won election in 1932 and reelection in 1936. In 1940, as Europe was engulfed in a war that threatened to draw in the United States and without a clear Democratic successor who could consolidate the New Deal, Roosevelt, who had earlier indicated misgivings about a third term, agreed to break Washingtons precedent. A general disinclination to change leadership amid crisis probably weighed heavily on the minds of votersmuch more so than the perceived deep-seated opposition to a third term for a presidentand Roosevelt romped to victory in 1940 and again in 1944.

Following on the heels of the establishment of the Hoover Commission and with Republicans winning a majority in Congress after the 1946 elections, they introduced an amendment to limit the president to two terms. The amendment caps the service of a president at 10 years. If a person succeeds to the office of president without election and serves less than two years, he may run for two full terms; otherwise, a person succeeding to office of president can serve no more than a single elected term. Although there have been some calls for repeal of the amendment, because it disallows voters to democratically elect the president of their choice, it has proved uncontroversial over the years. Nevertheless, presidents who win a second term in office are often referred to as lame ducks, and the race to succeed them often begins even before their inauguration to a second term.

The full text of the Amendment is:

Section 1No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

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United States -(AmmoLand.com)-One of the hardest parts of effectively defending the Second Amendment is figuring out how to straddle a lot of passions. If youre not denouncing the National Rifle Association, youre really in support of Negotiating Rights Away. Anyone who doesnt accept the notion that Wayne LaPierre is running the organization into the ground is seen as a traitor to the Second Amendment. On the flip side, there are those who get infuriated when Gun Owners of America opposes a bill that would represent an improvement (albeit not a total one) in their present situation.

The fact is, life can be far more complicated than many of us want to admit. On Wayne LaPierres watch, the NRA has greatly expanded concealed carry, largely thwarted federal legislation that would have infringed on our Second Amendment rights, and he also secured the election of politicians who put pro-Second Amendment justices on the Supreme Court. On the political and legislative front, a substantial share of the credit for the undeniable improvement in the overall situation over the last 35 years has to go to the NRA and LaPierre.

That being said, LaPierre also has made some serious strategic errors. On his watch, the NRA got lax with Ackerman-McQueen, and while they appear to be winning legal battles with their former PR firm, the entire situation didnt have to happen. Better oversight or better yet, having multiple vendors to create competition would have been better.

LaPierre also failed to anticipate the possibility that Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James would launch politically motivated abuses against the NRA. Cuomo in particular, gave an ominous warning in 2014 that should have prompted a move (and housecleaning) long before James would have had the power to abuse the NRA.

The NRA has also failed to get involved in the cultural arena, and it has left votes on the table by not hiring translators or engaging in outreach which proved crucial for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. Both of these failures also took place on LaPierres watch. The NRA needs to get started on rectifying those failures yesterday. And by the way, the threat posed to the entire Second Amendment community should James succeed in her politically-motivated hit on the NRA also exists.

But the NRA is not the only part of defending the Second Amendment that gets complicated. We rightly object when anti-Second Amendment extremists try to punish us for crimes and acts of madness some of them horrific that we did not commit. However, that doesnt make the misuse of firearms to commit crimes and acts of madness some of them horrific (Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas) something to ignore, or worse, brush off.

In 2020, FBI stats noted that 8,209 homicides were carried out with handguns, 455 with rifles, 203 with shotguns, and 4,283 were of firearms, type not stated. In addition, can any Second Amendment supporter deny that anti-Second Amendment extremists use those instances where firearms are misused as fodder for their unjust agenda? How many times have family members who lose loved ones in a tragedy sought to take their grief out against, especially when we are defending ourselves from having our rights infringed?

Second Amendment supporters need to have something to offer on this front. People might not like Project Exile and may have reservations about supporting legislation like the Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act and the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act, but the fact remains these bills can hold off much worse.

Also, think of this: The likely alternative to gun bans in a post-NYSRPA v. Bruen (and other Second Amendment cases) world be a series of other legislative attacks including the Sabika Sheikh Licensing and Registration Act. Do not think that this case, or those percolating from the rulings by Judge Benitez, will be panaceas.

We also must address the fact that much of the threats we now face come not from legislation or politicians, but from private entities. This is another complex fight because the Constitution grants them the same liberties it does for us. At the same time, we cannot allow ourselves to be financially blacklisted.

All Second Amendment supporters seek the restoration of an uninfringed right to keep and bear arms. Reaching that goal will require defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local level. It also means accepting the fact that the defense of our rights will be complicated at times.

About Harold Hutchison

Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.

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The Kay County Chapter of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association met Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at Marys Grill in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. OK2A members and the public were in attendance at the meeting along with guest speaker Sheriff Steve Kelley; Terry Thompson, Kay County OK2A coordinator; Mayor Ken Smith and wife Dianne; Chris Gonthier, representative with U.S. LawShield and Mayes County OK2A coordinator.

The OK2A meeting started with prayer, led by Dr. Glenn Cope and the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Sheriff Kelley. Mayor Ken Smiths birthday was the same day so Happy Birthday was sang by all to Mayor Smith. Thompson reported to the group an update of what has been happening with OK2A.

Thompson introduced Chris Gonthier to give an update about the U.S. Law-Shield organization. Terry Thompson then introduced Sheriff Steve Kelley. Kelley gave the people some background information about his family and that the sheriff is the only elected law enforcement position in our county. He has lived in Kay County all his life, except for four years in the U.S. Navy. In 1998 he started working with the Blackwell Police Department. He was interested in learning more about investigation and went to the sheriff department in 2003. He worked as undersheriff with Everette Van Hoesen, then in 2016 decided to run for the sheriff position to replace retiring Van Hoesen. In 2017 he was elected sheriff. He enjoys being able to serve citizens in Kay County.

Kelley was elected to the North Central Oklahoma Sheriff Association (OSA) as a board member. He represents and has a vote for ten counties in Oklahoma. The OSA has been around a very long time and has a lot of clout with the legislature.

Kelley told the group that Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. there will be a gun auction held at 402 N. 13th in Blackwell of lost and found or confiscated guns. There was a lot of consideration and concern that went into having the auction, according to Kelley. New training options for law enforcement recruits will be held at Pioneer Tech in 2022. Kelley spoke to the group about the Sheriffs Citizens Academy and the alumni association. Kelley spoke about the situation in the country concerning mandates, marijuana grow farms, illegals and immigrants and the overreach by the government and current administration. In the question and answer session there was a lot of information shared about concerns of citizens in Kay County. Contact information for the Kay County Sheriff Department is 580-362-3250 and it is located at 1101 W. Dry Road, Newkirk, Oklahoma

The OK2A mini meeting is held at Marys Grill in Tonkawa the second Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. The second meeting is held each month on the fourth Saturday at 12:00 noon at the New Hope Christian Fellowship, 401 South Lincoln in Ponca City. For more information about the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association call Terry Thompson, Kay County Chapter coordinator at 580- 670-0357, email terry.thompsonok2a@gmail.com or go to their website at ok2a.org. You may follow the group on their Facebook page at Oklahoma Second Amendment Association.

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Sheriff Steve Kelley speaks at Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association meeting - Ponca City News

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) The Pa. House of Representatives passed legislation that would protect the constitutional right to carry firearms by removing the need to obtain a permit for concealed carry.

House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) voted in favor of the bill, which passed the House by a vote 107-92.

On the passage of the bill, Benninghoff made the following statement:

The House Republican Caucus has made it a priority this session to guarantee constitutional and individual rights while providing resources for Pennsylvanias most vulnerable and giving additional tools to law enforcement to keep communities safe.

Benninghoff went on to state that the legislation protects the Second Amendment and Article 1, sec. 21 of the state constitutional rights of legal gun owners.

The bill does not change who can legally own a gun and will take nothing away from law enforcement from going after those owning and using guns illegally, he added.

The bill now goes to Governor Wolfs desk, however, Wolf has vowed to veto the bill in the past.

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Still raw from a deadly mass shooting that took place in his hometown of El Paso, Beto ORourke unapologetically defended his support for a mandatory assault weapon buyback program at a September 2019 debate in Houston.

Hell yes, were going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, ORourke famously said to roaring applause from a crowd at Texas Southern University. Were not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.

At the time, the former congressman was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, trying to distinguish himself among primary voters in a wide field of candidates. Now, hes running for governor in a state with the most gun owners in the nation against an incumbent who routinely touts his record on relaxing firearm restrictions.

In an interview with The Texas Tribune to announce his run, ORourke said he wont be backing down from his message on guns. He also said many Texans who support gun rights, regardless of party, agree that most people shouldnt have access to assault rifles.

Most of us understand the responsibility that comes with owning a firearm, and we will vigorously protect that Second Amendment right and also protect the lives of those around us, he said. But I think most of us also understand that we should not have military-style weapons used against our fellow Texans. We have four of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history right here in Texas that took place over the last five years.

ORourke also turned the tables on Abbott, accusing him of being the one to promote extremist gun policies when he signed the permitless carry bill into law this year allowing most Texans to carry handguns without training or a license.

What I think youll also find is most Texans reject Greg Abbotts extreme, divisive policies when it comes to firearms, like signing the law for the permitless carry bill, he said, adding that the bill was opposed by members of law enforcement worried it could endanger officers.

ORourke made his iconic gun statement at the third Democratic presidential debate, which fell about five weeks after a gunman went on a shooting rampage at an El Paso Walmart targeting Hispanic people. The shooter killed 23 people in what federal law enforcement classified as an act of domestic terrorism.

The tragedy prompted ORourke to suspend his presidential campaign events and anchor himself in the city he represented for six years in Congress and six other years on the El Paso City Council.

ORourke told The Atlantic the event changed his approach to the presidential race. And the refrain Hell yes became a T-shirt and fundraising tool for a presidential campaign that ended several weeks after the debate performance.

Jordan Berry, a GOP political consultant, said ORourke is compromised in Texas.

Texans take the Second Amendment really seriously, he said, adding that his gun stance will hurt him across the board, particularly with swing voters.

But in 2019, a poll found that there were more Texans who said they supported a mandatory buyback program to turn in all assault weapons than those who opposed it. Nearly half of Texans supported the buyback program, while about 29% said they opposed it, according to a poll by the University of Texas at Tyler. The rest of the respondents either were neutral or unsure.

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll from October 2019 found that 59% of Texas voters support a nationwide ban on semiautomatic weapons, compared to 33% who oppose the policy. The approval rating included 86% of Democrats, 56% of independents and 35% of Republicans.

For Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at UT, the idea that ORourke is in grave danger with Texans on the issue of gun control is overly simplistic.

In fact, Blank said Republicans pushing gun legislation in the first legislative session after the El Paso shooting may have given ORourke an entry point on the issue.

Some 55% of voters polled in October said they disapproved of a new Texas permitless carry law that allows most Texans to carry handguns without training or a license.

In a vacuum, Betos comments certainly create a challenge for him in Texas, Blank said. But considered in the context of the Legislature passing permitless carry, which has majority opposition, and in the first legislative session after the mass shootings I think it is a conversation that Beto is willing to have.

Democrats in rural Midland and Taylor counties both of which supported U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz over ORourke in 2018 by about three-fourths of the vote said theyre not turned off by ORourkes gun stance.

Midland Democratic Party Chair Cathy Broadrick worked for the federal prison system for 20 years and had to qualify annually to operate a variety of weapons, including the M16, a rifle similar to the AR-15.

While she doesnt look down on gun enthusiasts who want to shoot such weapons noting the blood pumping fun there is to be had Broadrick said such automatic rifles shouldnt be accessible to all.

I understand all these people that scream freedom and their constitutional rights, said Broadrick, a self-described country girl who hunted birds. But if youve ever stood on the firing line and youve shot an M16, you realize the power that that weapon holds.

For his part, ORourke said he too grew up in a family of responsible gun owners.

Most of us grew up with firearms. I did at my house, where my dad kept a gun for protection, where we had guns for hunting, where I was taught how to safely use a gun by my great uncle Raymond, who was sheriffs deputy and the jail captain at the El Paso County jail, he said.

While Broadrick acknowledged that Democrats have debated the wisdom of ORourkes comments, she doesnt think his words will damage his political future because she believes few Texans own AR-15s.

The people who supported ORourke in his 2018 Senate campaign will still turn out for him this cycle, Broadrick added.

I think Republicans will try to make an issue of it, but Beto wasnt going to get those voters anyway, she said.

Taylor County Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Smyser said she hopes Texans interested in solutions to gun violence will have compassion for the spirit with which ORourke tackled this issue, noting the suffering he witnessed in El Paso. Smyser said while there may be some single-issue voters on guns that ORourke has lost, there is also a sizable middle ground.

Those people in the middle that see and have heard the stories of all the gun violence and that are tired of kids getting mowed down in their classrooms or dont want to see Latinos getting targeted again there are a lot of people that feel that those things are far more extreme than what Beto said off the cuff in a moment of despair, Smyser said.

The rural Democrats said they expect ORourke to still be popular among Democrats and other voters in the race.

The minute I say the word Beto, I know Im gonna have 200 people show up, Broadrick said. And in red Midland, Texas, thats substantial in an area with 80% Republican, mostly, that you can still get a lot of people to turn out.

Disclosure: Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Will Beto O'Rourke's stance on guns hurt him in 2022's Texas governor race? - The Texas Tribune

Opinion: Kyle Rittenhouse may or may not spend the rest of his life behind bars. But he's still alive. Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber are not.

Kyle Rittenhouse closing arguments: Self-defense versus vigilante

Lawyers on both sides of the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial gave their version of events in closing arguments after days of testimony and video.

STAFF VIDEO, USA TODAY

Kyle Rittenhouse could spend the rest of his life behind bars, or he could walk free.

Either way, hes still alive.

But Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber never had a chance when they faced Rittenhouses semiautomatic rifle that night of Aug. 25, 2020.

Forget the Second Amendment for a moment, and lets stick to the undisputed factsat Rittenhouses murder trial that just ended and whose fate is now at the hands of the jury.

Rittenhouse, then 17, went to Kenosha, Wis., carrying a semiautomatic rifle to a volatile protest over a police shooting. Rittenhouse fired eight shots, killing 36-year-old Rosenbaum and 26-year-old Huber, and injuring a third man.

Whatever the jury decides, the fact is that Rosenbaum and Huber would still be alive had Rittenhouse not carried that semiautomatic rifle to the protest.

By now it should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense that walking into a riot with any kind of firearm andespecially a high-powered rifleis incredibly dangerous.

The judge presiding over Rittenhouses trial has already dismissed the lesser charge of an underage teen carrying a rifle with a long barrel, sothis isnt a legal or Second Amendment argument.

We have the right to carry arms, but that doesnt make it less dangerous to go to public protests armed to the teeth.

Rittenhouse and his family are finding that out the hard way.

But hes still alive. Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber are not. Their families are left to their painful loss.

Will this be a lesson that firearms and angry protests dont mix?

I doubt it. Why? Because displaying ones arsenalat public protests is Americas new deadly sport.

Elvia Daz is an editorial columnistfor The Republic and azcentral.Reach her at 602-444-8606 orelvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter,@elviadiaz1.

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Kyle Rittenhouse shows the worst of America's love for firearms at protests - AZCentral.com

LANCASTER State SenatorTim Schaffer(R-Lancaster) this week introduced two bills addressing the right to self defense and ammunition and firearm sales.

The Second Amendment and the Ohio Constitution grant Ohioans the right to bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones, Schaffer said. These bills make that right more affordable and give non-profit organizations increased protection.

Senate Bill 265would create a sales tax exemption on small arms and ammunition. This would include non-shotgun firearms and any shotgun that is 10 gauge or smaller. Similar legislation was recently enacted in West Virginia.

Senate Bill 266would provide immunity to individualswho act in self-defense or the defense of members and guests on the premises of a nonprofit. This legislation acts as an extension of provisions passed inSenate Bill 175during the 133rd General Assembly.

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State Senator Tim Schaffer Introduces Two Bills on Self Defense and Ammunition and Firearm Sales - Scioto Post

Wayne LaPierre, the longtime head of the National Rifle Association, is one of the most successful lobbyists in American history, one of the central hubs of the conservative movement, and quite possibly a complete and utter buffoon. Wayne is a clumsy, meek, spastic man with a weak handshake, the journalist Tim Mak writes in his new, character-rich book on the N.R.A., Misfire. In Maks account, LaPierre oversleeps and misses a golf outing with former Vice-President Dan Quayle. He stands up his bride at the altar while he decides whether or not to marry her. (Once he makes up his mind to go through with the wedding, his own best man skips the reception.) He eschews technology but is forever scribbling notes on yellow legal pads and begins travelling with a roller suitcase stuffed full of them. At a conference, he runs into his longtime N.R.A. second-in-command Chris Cox and introduces himself as though the two men have never met: Hi! Im Wayne LaPierre! (Wayne, what are you talking about? Cox replies.) A former N.R.A. board member, Wayne Anthony Ross, once said that LaPierre has the backbone of a chocolate clair.

LaPierres characteristic self-absorption now threatens to bring him down. In a 2020 lawsuit seeking to break up the N.R.A., the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, charges that LaPierre and other leaders of the organization awarded lucrative contracts to close associates and family members and spent millions of the groups dollars on themselves. The documented expenditures, some of which were paid by the N.R.A.s longtime advertising firm rather than by the gun lobby itself, are a little comic: LaPierre spent tens of thousands of dollars on private jets to fly his niece in and out of North Platte, Nebraska; nearly two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars at the Zegna store on Rodeo Drive; and almost two hundred and fifty million dollars on vacations to destinations including Lake Como, the Bahamas, and Budapest. There is something comic, too, in Maks sketches of the powerful figures around LaPierre: the clean-cut lobbyist Chris Cox, who helped make the N.R.A. into a linchpin of a hyper-partisan Republican machine; the bullying ad man Angus McQueen, who looked after LaPierres image and the organizations (Youre a fucking poodle, he once told LaPierre); the cigar-chomping consigliere Tony Makris, who once advised Charlton Heston and presides over an upstairs lounge in Old Town Alexandria frequented by the N.R.A.s grandees; the powerhouse lobbyist Marion Hammer, an eighty-year-old woman with a pageboy haircut who is the central force behind Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

Maks book reminded me of a feeling Ive sometimes had when reporting, that conservative institutions in Washington are oversupplied with preening characters and undersupplied with playwrights. It also suggested that the real dramas of the modern N.R.A. might not have taken place in the smoke-filled rooms that are its principal setting. During LaPierres thirty years at the head of the organization, annual gun sales have more than doubled, and military-style weapons have come to define gun culture. If all of these people were so caught up in their Old Town Alexandria cigar-lounge intrigues, then who was making these changes? And, if their leader is such a buffoon, why do three hundred and thirty-three million of the rest of us live in their world?

A second book about the N.R.A.s world was published this month, Gunfight, by a gun-industry insider named Ryan Busse. His is a memoir of disenchantment. Having grown up hunting as a ranch kid in northwestern Kansas, Busse went to work in the nineteen-nineties for the sales department of a small gun manufacturer named Kimber, which had, in his view, a magnificent product line. As the company grew, so did Busses reputation as a gunrunner (his own term), until he was a two-time finalist at N.R.A. conventions as the industrys Person of the Year and friends with governors, senators, and some of the most senior N.R.A. figures in Washington. Slowly he came to distrust this world, then to fear it, and eventually quit the gun industry, in 2018, having seen the politics that hed watched develop at industry conventions culminate in Trumpism. The story that Busse tells is not just of the gun industrys long political turn, in which a rural coalition of rifle owners became a partisan voting bloc, but also of the cultural change that the N.R.A. coaxed along, of the militarization of the gun world. He describes how a lobbying group took a political base of hunters and nurtured a new, expanded audience of gun guys.

The part of the gun industry that Busse entered was, in his own telling, a kind of idyll. Kimbers products were beloved by gun enthusiasts, and the company allowed him to work from Kalispell, Montana, where, from his porch, he could see three mountain ranges whose beauty moved him to tears. Many of his sales targets were small-time, knowledgeable vendors (Verns in Salmon, Idaho; a retired Chicago cop who toured the Southwestern gun-show circuit from Albuquerque), which made it easier to think that he was selling high-quality guns to people who understood them and would use them responsibly. He told himself that only a real relic would ever use a gun like the ones Kimber made in a crime. To court the high-profile gun writers whose endorsements are especially important for a niche brand like Kimber, he staged annual prairie-dog hunts on his fathers Kansas ranchland. To build Kimbers corporate presence, he began to attend N.R.A. conventions, and, over time, he became a familiar face to the powerful. In Montana, he also joined conservation organizations and came to help run them. For a while, he saw no contradiction between advocating for environmental protections and working in the gun industry.

From Montana, Busse saw the beginning of the age of mass shootings, starting with Columbine, in 1999. Each time, when legislators responded with gun-control proposals, the N.R.A. chose not to seek a compromise position but instead to double down and fight all legislation, blaming the media for turning the topic to guns at all. (Why us? Because their story needs a villain, then N.R.A. president, Charlton Heston, told the organizations annual convention, just eleven days after Columbine.) Mak recounts the N.R.A.s internal debates over how to respond to these shootings, in which some officials did make the case for accommodation and apology. But they never won, and one reason may be that, by the late nineties, the N.R.A. had committed itself to a maximalist defense of guns. In 1995, LaPierre had authored a fund-raising letter that referred to government agents as jack-booted government thugs. When, that same month, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, there was a furor about the fund-raising letter, and former President George H. W. Bush resigned his lifetime membership in the organization. George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, did not follow suit; that year he signed a concealed-carry law, pushed by the N.R.A., that was a model for others across the country. Such laws committed the N.R.A. to a theory made explicit by LaPierre after the Sandy Hook massacre: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Gun-lobby politics reached Busse in 2000, when Ed Shultz, the C.E.O. of Smith & Wesson, cut a deal with several Democratic attorneys general. In return for immunity from lawsuits over mass shootings, the company agreed to put trigger locks on all its guns and to eventually develop smart guns that could only be fired by the owner. The rest of the gun industry responded with outrage over one company making its own deal. The N.R.A. criticized Smith & Wesson in the press, and gun manufacturers pressured gun dealers to boycott Smith & Wesson. Busse writes, I went to work calling and faxing dealers, imploring them to stop selling Smith & Wesson products and to send back the guns they already had. The boycott worked; the companys sales tanked, Shultz resigned within six months, and, not long afterward, Smith & Wesson was sold to a group of investors from Phoenix for the measly sum of fifteen million dollars. In Busses story, this is the moment when it became clear that the N.R.A. had become something like a cartel. All executives knew the unspoken org chart, Busse writes. Nobody would develop innovative new products without the NRAs approval. It even became standard practice to seek new-product-development and marketing advice from top NRA staffers. Gun manufacturers began to stick an N.R.A. membership card inside every new package, and some even paid new owners membership fees. Most gun companies, Kimber among them, began to spend inordinate amounts of their advertising budget on N.R.A. magazines and media. We all complied partially because NRA members had become the core customer base for us all, Busse writes, but mostly it was fear.

The received wisdom in the gun industry is that sales spike when Democrats hold the White House (because of fears that your guns will be taken away) and plummet when Republicans do. But, during the George W. Bush years, Busse noticed that sales werent plummeting at all. Amid the war on terror, with its implication that threats were nearby and also on the battlefield, LaPierre encouraged his membership to see themselves as self-deputized defenders of what he called the homeland. Busse highlights LaPierres speech at the N.R.A. convention a few months after the 9/11 attacks, in which he implored members to take note of people who are not citizens of our homeland, who dont belong in our homeland along with aliens on work visas, or green cards, or student passes. In 2004, President Bush allowed the Clinton assault-weapons ban to lapse, effectively authorizing the sale of AR-15s, and, in 2005, he signed a law immunizing manufacturers from lawsuits. The first change meant that the manufacturers could sell military-grade weapons in the United States; the second meant that they could market them as military weapons. Those fucking Democrats cant touch us now, Kimbers owner, Leslie Edelman, called Busse to crow. In 2003, approximately three hundred and eighty thousand modern sporting rifles (the category that includes AR-15s) were produced. By 2016, the number was 2.3 million. It took a while for Kimber to join the rush, but eventually the company did. Busse writes,Barely a couple of weeks went by without Leslie calling me to suggest that Kimber should get into Americas AR-15 business.

To this point, Busse has described himself as ambivalent about the gun industry, but, writing about the dawn of the Obama Administration, he begins to sound scared. Of Sandy Hook, he writes, the horror was overwhelming. But in the office much of the talk was about the post-Sandy Hook boom in gun sales. At the N.R.A. convention in St. Louis in 2012, he is greeted by twenty-foot banners of LaPierre and two of his deputieshead shots of the organizations great triad, Busse writes. Or was it a trinity? Busses efforts to persuade the N.R.A.s lobbyists to back the pro-gun Democratic Jon Tester in his Senate race in Montana go nowhere; when he sells a Kimber rifle to the states Democratic Governor Steve Bullock, who uses it to go deer hunting with his son, one of Busses colleagues texts him: Why did you sell one of our rifles to a fucking Democrat? A young influential writer arrives at Busses annual prairie-dog hunt and, as the group is headed out, unsheathes his weapon of choice: an AR-15.

That little scene at the prairie-dog hunt was an early indication of the turn that the industry was taking, toward tactical weapons, styled and marketed with military imagery. At first, when the young buyers started showing up in the marketing data, old-timers at Kimber and elsewhere made fun, calling them couch commandos and tactards. But, quite quickly, it became apparent to Busse that this group was driving sales. Domestic manufacturers eventually applied a desert tan finish to guns sold for hunting or self-defense, to mimic what was on the battlefields. I called big accounts to see what was selling, Busse writes. The answer was clear: Anything in desert tan. The tactical-weapons movement eventually spawned its own influencers. There was the former Delta Force sergeant major Kyle Lamb, who helped to popularize another wave of military-style rifles (this time in black). And there was Mat Best, who, Busse writes, made a habit of posting pictures of himself sleeping on a bed made of his large collection of AR-15s. When Best, whose main enterprise is a gun-themed coffee business called Black Rifle Coffee, published a memoir, it dbuted at No. 5 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list; when he released a rap song (titled Bitch, I Operate), it started out at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative chart. When Donald Trump, Jr., early in the 2016 Presidential campaign, announced a Second Amendment Coalition of gun leaders, co-chaired by the N.R.A.s Chris Cox, Busse was unsurprised, because he had watched the industry be taken over by a generation very much like Trump, Jr. See? a friend tells Busse, at an industry fund-raiser where the younger Trump is speaking. Hes one of us.

Both Mak and Busse are telling the story of a gun lobby that grew more powerful and darker. Both also seem to harbor a suspicion that the world of guns and gun-owners might always have been at least a bit like this, rich with paranoia and warlike thinking. Busse relates an episode from his fathers Kansas childhood, when a retreatist gun obsessive named Tolly Bolyard murdered one of the senior Busses close friends and his friends father, because Bolyard became convinced that they were encroaching on his land. The N.R.A. itself has worked hard to leave the impression that the ideology of gun ownership has been constant, emphasizing a Second Amendment politics that flattens the distinction between the eighteenth century and the present, and marketing AR-15s as if they were made for hunting. But, by the time of Sandy Hook, the gun culture that Busse saw around him was all new: the treatment of lobbyists as charismatic leaders, the black-rifle influencers, the military weapons in the stores, and the military imagery used to market them. What he is documenting is not a timeless gun culture but the world that the N.R.A. built.

Personally, Busse sees LaPierre much as Mak doeshe describes the N.R.A. leader as a nervous man. But he also has known many of the people around LaPierre for decades, and they, he writes, are talented and committed, the backbone of the organization that brainwashed an entire country. The allegations against LaPierre may weaken the N.R.A., but the tactical culture that consolidated under his watch appears more durable. The sort of people who, not long ago, Busse might have characterized as couch commandos are everywhere on the American rightin power, and also on the fringe. Kyle Rittenhouse, who, at the age of seventeen, got an AR-15-style rifle from a friend and brought it to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he killed two men and wounded another, fits Busses account of the tactard perfectly. So does Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, who owns a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colorado; supported the storming of the Capitol; and has posed frequently with AR-15-style rifles. The slate of Trump-endorsed candidates for office in 2022 includes several peopleincluding the former Army Ranger and military-thriller writer Sean Parnell, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvaniafor whom the roles of politician and gun influencer blur. It seems entirely predictable that, when online sleuths tried to track down the extremists who broke into the Capitol building, they identified one of them by his Black Rifle Coffee cap.

An earlier version of this article misspelled Ed Shultzs name.

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What Happened to Gun Culture - The New Yorker

Former President TrumpDonald TrumpBiden sends 2016 climate treaty to Senate for ratification US, China ease restrictions on journalists Americans keep spending MORE on Thursday endorsed Texas Rep. Michael McCaulMichael Thomas McCaulTrump endorses Texas rep who said he 'very well may have' committed impeachable offenses Anomalies or attacks? Fear, uncertainty and politics of Havana Syndrome Lawmakers praise upcoming establishment of cyber bureau at State MORE (R), who previously said Trump very well may have committed impeachable offenses on and before Jan. 6.

Congressman Michael McCaul is doing an incredible job for the great State of Texas. He works hard to protect our Borders, defend our now under siege Second Amendment, and support our brave Military and Vets, Trump said in his statement.

He will fight for our America First agenda, stand up to China, and hold Joe BidenJoe BidenIdaho state House passes worker vaccine compensation bill Biden sends 2016 climate treaty to Senate for ratification Rubio vows to slow-walk Biden's China, Spain ambassador nominees MORE accountable for his incompetent failure in Afghanistan. Michael McCaul has my Complete and Total Endorsement! he added.

McCaul has previously condemned Trumps rhetoric and did not go along with the former presidents false election fraud claims, votingto certify electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Back in January, McCaul did vote against impeaching Trump, saying he did so because the process was hurried and he didnt want rushed justice.

There very well may have been impeachable offenses committed leading up to, and on, that tragic day, McCaul said, referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

I strongly condemn the presidents rhetoric and his behavior, McCaul said. I understand, having witnessed these events first-hand, that emotions are high; but this decision must be based on facts and evidence.

Along with McCaul, Trump announced endorsements on Thursday for two other Texas representatives campaigning for reelection, Reps. Pat Fallon (R) and John CarterJohn Rice CarterTrump endorses Texas rep who said he 'very well may have' committed impeachable offenses Early redistricting plans show GOP retrenching for long haul Bottom line MORE (R).

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Trump endorses Texas rep who said he 'very well may have' committed impeachable offenses | TheHill - The Hill